Rectifying our Animal Nature

בס"ד

Freeze frame: A slender, tall man stands before my class. He is simply dressed and squeezed into the smallest space possible, not from any outside factors but from just being a man of small stature. A white beard and silver-frame glasses adorn his otherwise simple face. As the camera starts rolling we see him in action. A quiet voice barely projects as we begin one of the most interesting courses of our week - how to rectify our animal nature, "interior decorating" as he calls it.

"Horror Story," he once exclaims in class, a now common introduction to an illustration of the bad character trait, "three girls leave for America and need to take my test early. I come to give the exam and when they finish, only one girl says 'thank you'." With a glance of the eye, he notices that we are all waiting for more, "That's it. End of story."

This comes as a surprise to us all, from the abrupt ending as much as the punch of a message. When I think about it, that I am actually in a class to refine myself, I sigh. This isn't an inspirational talk on the beauty of being Jewish, and neither is it the catchy works of the Kabalah. This is just a simple story of daily life. And how that can be so wrong.